5th EPIP Conference:

1
5th EPIP Conference European Policy on Patents
and Intellectual Property What direction should
it go? The Gauss Project http//gauss.ffii.org
(gauss and EP political realities) Erik
Josefsson, Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure Copenhagen, 11 March 2005
2
about the name "Jacobi visited Gauss on
several occasions to ... tell him about his own
most recent discoveries, and each time Gauss
pulled 30-year-old manuscripts out of his desk
and showed Jacobi what Jacobi had just showed
him." Quote from "Differential equations with
applications and historical notes" by George F.
Simmons, page 198 (ISBN 0-07-099572-9).
3
"The Commission's intention in making its
proposal was to avoid patenting of pure software
and clearly differentiate the EU from the
US." Charlie McCREEVY, European Parliament
Plenary Session, 8 March 2005 25.000
granted software patents in the gauss
database
4
"Nothing that is not patentable now will be made
patentable by the directive." Charlie McCREEVY,
European Parliament Plenary Session, 8 March
2005
Pending Estonia Microsoft 278 Matsushita
225 Samsung 222 Sony
139 Canon 138 Alcatel 129 Nokia
126 Siemens 124 Philips
116 Nippon Electric 93
Granted Germany Ibm 2054 Canon
893 Siemens 881 Sony
728 Nippon Electric 662 Fujitsu Ltd
612 Matsushita 612 Tokyo Shibaura
573 Hewlett Packard 526 Hitachi 505
5
NOKIA tells MEPs that the Council text of 18 May
"makes sure that software, business methods and
algorithms are not included in the
directive". NOKIA patent EP1343166
(pending) "Method of digital recording" a
"digital recording device" provides data, stores
data, defines data, copies data and deletes data,
and the data is processed according to the
instructions of the claimed computer program.
6
Claim 1. A method of digital recording
comprising providing a playback file (34) for
storing a stream of data(40) defining, within
said playback file, a first section (51) to be
recorded copying a second section (35, 36) of
said playback file to a new file (55) thereby
providing an updated playback file (34')
deleting at least one section (541, 542) from
said playback file thereby providing a record
comprising said first section.
Claim 20. A computer program which, when loaded
and executed by a digital recording device,
causes said digital recording device to provide
a playback file (34) for storing a stream of
data(40) to define, within said playback file,
a first section (51) to be recorded to copy a
second section (35, 36) of said playback file to
a new file (55) thereby providing an updated
playback file (34') to delete at least one
section (541, 542) from said playback file
thereby providing a record comprising said first
section.
7
Council Art. 5.2 "A claim to a computer
program ...                   when loaded and
executed                   in a ...
programmable apparatus,                   put
into force a product or process NOKIA EP1343166
"claim 20. A computer program which,
                  when loaded and executed
                  by a digital recording device,
                  causes said digital recording
device
8
Council Art. 4.1 "A computer program as such
cannot constitute a patentable
invention." NOKIA EP1343166 "claim 19. A
computer program for executing
a method according to any
preceding claim." What is the difference
between the EP1343166 computer program which
NOKIA believes constitutes a patentable
invention, and those computer programs that
cannot constitute patentable inventions according
to article 4.1? and other questions...
9
suggested definition of software patent a
software patent is a patent on any performance
of a computer realised by means of a computer
program Council 18 May text "computer-implemente
d invention" means any invention the performance
of which involves the use of a computer, computer
network or other programmable apparatus, the
invention having one or more features which are
realised wholly or partly by means of a computer
program or computer programs
10
Thank you for your attention! Please
visit http//www.ffii.org and
http//gauss.ffii.org